


Click Here for Soft Puppies

by tealmoon



Series: good doges building relationships [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Baby Blasters (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Babybones (Undertale), Fluff, Gen, Hypothermia, Past Child Abuse, Puppies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealmoon/pseuds/tealmoon
Summary: Escaping the grasp of W.D. Gaster, a pair of shapeshifting skeletons find a home.
Relationships: Dogamy/Dogaressa (Undertale), Doggo - Relationship, Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), dogs & skeleton dogs
Series: good doges building relationships [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865485
Comments: 15
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note the hypothermia tag; the aforementioned puppies have a hard time at first.

Once they had started running, it was hard to know when to stop. Sans didn’t know where they would find safety.

His brother wanted to stay in the watery place, where it was dark and had enough to drink forever and pretty glowing plants. He had agreed until the plants made noise at him, which sent him tumbling into a stream in shock, as Papyrus hunched in the weeds, looking around for any monsters that had noticed. How were they supposed to hear approaching danger if the plants talked?

Now that he had drunk enough to cry, Papyrus sniffled and dripped with each step out of the watery place, but if he had been angry about leaving, it hadn’t stopped him from following Sans.

The white place they came to was colder and crowded, and he knew it had been a mistake. There were so many monsters there, real monsters who spoke words he didn’t know. They had to dart from tree to tree, trying to pass without notice, as strange powder clung to their bones.

The buildings looked warm and bright, but he led his brother away from them. They had to find some dry, quiet place to make a new nest, away from the cold and monsters. But the white place was a maze once they had moved from the path. More powder kept falling on them, enough to fill their steps, and the trees were so uniform. They walked and walked, but he couldn’t find a place for them to hide away.

Papyrus was slowing down, making little whimpers. He had always had less energy, soft and a little fragile. Sans couldn’t bound through the powder and expect him to keep up. He shivered so much that he fell once, twice, and left himself colder still. The wet froze onto him.

When Papyrus stopped walking, Sans picked him up by the scruff and continued to walk. Had he seen that bent branch before? Had he circled around instead of gaining ground?

His legs stopped feeling bitter and needle-jabbed, numbly trudging forward. His brother had completely gone limp, his energy almost too faint to feel. If he stopped, he knew he would never start again, but there was nowhere to go.

They had escaped and ran and tried so hard only to fail here. There was nowhere dry to lay them both down, but soon it didn’t matter, once his legs buckled under him and didn’t respond anymore. They both lay there in the cold.

Papyrus looked asleep, or maybe drugged. That was okay. If they died there, and he was sure they would, it wouldn’t be painful for him. It felt like Sans’ bones were being cored, but there was an exhaustion there too, like he might fall asleep himself and stop hurting.

The powder started to bury their still bodies. If they dusted, if they were capable of doing that like monsters did, no one would be able to see their remains, let alone use them for one last cruel experiment. They could die together, free and undisturbed.

With all the powder plugging his acoustic meatus, he could only hear a murmur of steps and words, coming closer. His thoughts had frozen too thick to be scared. Just as someone began to brush away at his face, unconsciousness took him.

-

Being warm _hurt_ , like bone samples being taken from every part of him. Sans wanted to squirm away from it, but there was some sort of restraint around him, keeping his legs tight underneath him. Only his face was open to the air, but he didn’t have enough magic in him to see. Sensing something near his mouth, he tried to bite. The fact that no one hurt him back was far stranger. It didn’t feel like fingers between his teeth, but... paws?

“ _Think this one’s recovering just fine, if he’s well enough to chew on me_ ,” someone laughed without trying to wrench his jaws open. He kept biting, trying to gauge the shape of this thing but mostly determining that it was furry and big, only a fraction of it fitting in his mouth. He was too weak to puncture anything. If this was the best he had to defend himself...

Whoever it was, they were much larger than him. Past the cloth firmly wrapped around him, there were arms holding him. It smelled like fur, but he couldn’t identify anything else. All of the world seemed to have so many smells.

“( _Now, is that a reflex, or is the puppy actually awake?)_ ” He couldn’t understand their growling, and it didn’t quite sound like when he and his brother did it, but it was comfort...ing....?

 _Where was his brother_.

Unable to move anything else, he tossed his head, hoping to free himself. If he had been found, had someone taken his brother too? He yipped, hoping for an answering call. There was a flurry of movement at that, and he was set down into what felt like a nest, likely made of whatever was covering him. He wriggled further, only for his snout to meet hard bone.

It was his brother. When Sans nudged closer, he could feel that his bones had thawed, and he was making little snorting noises in his sleep. Papyrus was safe, or as safe as Sans could determine when he was too weak to make his eyes light up. Whoever their rescuers or captors were, they hadn’t hurt either of them.

“ _Can you hear us?_ ” When he didn’t respond, they began to speak in a more familiar language, the one the Doctor used with them.

“Puppy?” He didn’t know the word, but it was soft in the monster’s mouth and didn’t sound like an insult. “How do you feel? Cold?” They seemed to understand _him_ when he whined, trying to say he felt too hot now. “No, you need to keep heating up. You’re not at a normal temperature yet, even for a bone puppy.”

“(You might need to be warmer than us, without any fur),” the other one said. “(Now that you’re awake, try drinking something.)” Another paw came to rub at his jaw, and he expected his teeth to be forcefully parted, but it was only petting and petting until he released his weak bite.

He was lifted up and brought to a furry side, and he squirmed, unsure of what was going on. He parted his jaw hopefully, but nothing came. Even when a paw guided his skull into place, there wasn’t a bottle or a dish, just the monster’s skin.

“(Poor thing doesn’t know what to do with a teat! I’m surprised he’s lasted this long...)”

“Maybe bone dogs don’t feed like that? I’ll go get a bottle, sweetie.”

Bottles, he could understand. He latched on to the top, sipping eagerly until they scolded him to slow down. It was warm, and not water. It tasted like the liquid the Doctor gave them if their bone density wasn’t good enough, but less metallic. With each trickle, he felt warmer and more energetic, until he had enough magic to see.

The two faces leaning over him startled back, but only for a moment. They were both large, white-furred monsters, with paws and snouts that were similar to his own, merely padded with flesh and fur. Tails too, that began to slap against the floor as they examined him. “There you are, little puppy,” one of them said, stroking his skull through the cloth. “I was worried you couldn’t see at all.”

The room was blurred, but he could see a nest of varying colors under him, and the light was warm without being painfully bright, and there was his brother, similarly wrapped and sleeping away. Through the cloth, he could see a foot twitching from some sort of dream. He looked safe, even peaceful.

“Are they old enough for kibble, do you think? With those teeth...”

“(No, don’t rush, they’ll hork it all up.)”

While one layered more blankets onto the nest, the other settled down into it with the two of them. It was large enough to fit all of them with space, but the monster curled around them, bringing their two bundles against his stomach, one paw laying over them. Careful, not crushing. A tongue rasped against his skull and that didn’t hurt either. He tensed at first, wondering if that was the first step to eating, but it kept up its unhurried pace without any teeth joining in, wetting stripes against his skull and leaving monster-smell behind.

Sans knew he should have been scared, but he was so _tired_ of running. Maybe these monsters weren’t like all the ones they had run from, monsters who loomed and shouted and chased, in their dark clothes and spikes. Maybe there were good monsters like these ones, who smelled good and were soft and had brought them into a warm place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday to me, have some Swapfell (red? whatever one is Razz and Slim) backstory. I expect to have a few short chapters of this at most, as background to a piece or two about them on the Surface.


	2. Chapter 2

Sans couldn’t remember falling asleep, but he woke up to bone nudging against him. When his eyes flickered in, they met his brother’s, which were bright and solid. They had both been freed from their restraints, and Papyrus had ample room to push his snout against him, tail flicking, climbing practically on top of him.

But he wasn’t the only one moving. It wasn’t the big monster, still curled around them and sleeping. Sans turned as best as he could to see a much smaller one, making its way up the edge of the nest and towards them, sniffing intently. She seemed far less cautious than he was, bumping her way up against them until they were head against head. She squeaked, and he returned it, a similar wordless questioning.

She soon tucked herself against the big monster’s stomach. He decided she was an unobjectionable presence, but more soon tumbled through the doorway and towards their... doctor? Was this the doctor for the small ones, like the one they had? He must have been much more lenient to allow them to crawl over him, but it still had Sans tensing up, waiting for a punishing shock.

Not just crawling over the big monster, but over the two of them as well, sniffing intently. They were light, and their bodies, although chubby, didn’t press too hard on bone. They smelled faintly sweet, and their fur was soft. Only when a mouth closed around his forelimb did he whine, not sure of their intentions.

“Hey, hey. Give the new puppies some space.” A paw scooped up the little one, the Doctor now awake from all of the squirming and soft vocalizations. “Don’t bite, even if they’re bone.” With her mouth open, he couldn’t see any teeth, so no harm would have come to him, but he relaxed when the “threat” was removed. “If the teeth are any sign, you guys are older; they don’t know any better yet.”

So, this Doctor designated all of them as puppies. Although there were similarities, he didn’t know how they could be mistaken for each other, even for the ones with bone-white fur. Were they being added to a new subject group? So far, nothing had been painful or invasive, but he didn’t know what they might do. Would they have to make a second escape?

A door opened and _more_ monsters filtered in. Sans had the distinct feeling of being stared at, but whenever he checked, the monsters had turned their heads away. They started pouring bowls of food: a soft mash for Sans and Papyrus, and hardened pellets for themselves. The littlest ones weren’t given bowls, instead latching their mouths onto the sides of some of the monsters, who lowered themselves to the ground to eat from their own bowls. He had only seen monsters eating standing or at tables before.

As they ate (and were eaten from?? they didn’t seem concerned about apparent cannibalism), the two scientists talked in between mouthfuls. Tentatively chewing the strangely vivid-tasting mash, with Papyrus digging in beside him, he tried to listen in.

“The store’s gotta open soon, should we—”

“(The town’s going to riot if we close without notice. Maybe one of us stays with the pups while the other manages the counter, and we trade off every few hours?)”

“But then we wouldn’t have someone stocking the shelves...”

“I’ve taken care of the other ones, shouldn’t I be able to handle two extra?” one of the other bipedal monsters cut in, putting up a paw. He was squinting in their direction, swaying in place.

Wait, the Doctors were leaving? Leaving the two of them _alone_ , with an unfamiliar monster? Sans whined, stumbling away from his half-eaten bowl and over to the Doctors’ paws, nudging them with his snout. Papyrus yipped in concern behind him.

“Hey, hey.” One of them leaned down to him. “Doggo won’t hurt you, I promise. We’re going to come back, but we have to go to work for a while.”

Were they going away to tend to another experiment? Sans didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter. Who knew what he could do to them and the puppies?

“(Here, I’ll tell you what. On our lunch hour, we’ll come back home to see you. You’ll only have to wait a few hours for us, okay?)” He nodded, trembling despite himself. They had survived the first Doctor for much longer; they could wait for the gentleness to come back.

She snuffled at Sans’s head, detached the puppies from her torso carefully, and stood. “(Be good for Doggo, alright?)”

The puppies were obviously the lowest in the hierarchy, if Sans and Papyrus were included with them, and the first two were the scientists, but he had no idea how to classify this new monster. Sans kept an eyelight on him as he finished his food—he wasn’t hungry, but he was sure he’d need the energy. Doggo seemed to have authority, barking in a way that the other puppies understood, and when the two of them stayed still, wondering what the directive was, he nudged them along, the last in a wobbly line of puppies walking into the next room.

It was very colorful. Why was their test room like this? How could any of them focus on a given task when there was so much to look at? Already, the other puppies had dispersed through the room, interacting with the objects around them, pieces of wood and rope and cloth. While his brother bounded in and began to examine a green sphere, he stood motionless, not sure of what to do. Having to guess had always ended in pain.

The bigger... puppy?... had taken a spot in the corner where he could survey the rest of the room. Weren’t there any cameras? Or maybe the scientists wanted to know how his presence impacted their behavior. Sans approached him, head lowered, and yipped in a questioning way. He needed to know what they were assigned to do, in case his brother was breaking some rule by tapping the sphere along with his snout.

Doggo pointed a paw at the various objects, without clarifying which one out of dozens was meant for Sans, and when he whined, the monster beckoned him closer. Once Sans had settled between his front paws, he began to lick his skull methodically. Maybe his task was to lay with the observer and watch. His brother had caught hold of a long rope and tugged at it, while three puppies at the other end tried to pull it back.

No one hit him for laying there, or for nudging back a sphere when it drifted his way. No one stuck him with needles or made him run endurance tests.

After a few minutes, he gathered the courage to lick a paw in response, and that was okay too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only have one more chapter planned for this, though it might be a little longer, I don't know.


End file.
